Obama, Romney win on Nantucket

Thursday

Feb 7, 2008 at 2:00 AM

By Jason Graziadei I&M Assistant Editor

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama garnered significant support from Nantucket voters during the Super Tuesday primary this week, as nearly 60 percent of those who voted in the Democratic Primary marked an oval for the Illinois senator.

Obama received 1,395 votes to New York Senator Hillary Clinton’s 893, and the island’s support for the African-American candidate was among the highest of any community in Massachusetts.

On the Republican side, Nantucketers gave former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney a slight edge over Arizona Senator John McCain, as Romney received 454 votes to McCain’s 427.

Clinton and Romney took the statewide primary races by double-digit margins, and claimed the majority of Massachusetts’ 121 Democratic delegates and 43 Republican delegates, respectively.

Consistent with the large turnout around the state, a record number of islanders cast ballots in the primary, as 3,363 of Nantucket’s 8,224 registered voters made it to the polls, a 41 percent turnout.

The percentage and total number of voters who cast ballots on Nantucket were larger than in any previous presidential primary on record, according to the Town Clerk’s office. In the 2000 presidential primary, 1,830 Nantucketers voted, the previous high turnout in a primary election.

“It was a big turnout for this early on,” Town Clerk Catherine Flanagan Stover said. “It was very steady all day and I was very pleased with the turnout. I think it would have been bigger but people were still confused over their status as an unenrolled voter versus an independent. The secretary of state was using the term ‘independent’ and we’ve been trying to implement the change of calling it ‘unenrolled,’ so that kind of messed things up. People were confused as to whether they could vote or not.”

Massachusetts was among 22 states that held primaries or caucuses on Feb. 5, which earned the moniker of “Super Tuesday” with 52 percent of all Democratic Party delegates and 41 percent of Republican delegates at stake.

McCain earned victories in such delegate-rich states as California, New York, New Jersey and Missouri, solidifying his front-runner status for the Republican party nomination over Romney and Mike Huckabee.

The picture for Democrats was more uncertain, as more states awarded their delegates proportionally. Though Clinton prevailed in larger states such as California and New York, Obama won a greater number of states and the two candidates’ delegate totals will likely be close once all the ballots are counted.

Democratic Town Committee chairwoman Teena Loftin, who is also the chairwoman of the group “Obama for Nantucket,” said she was disappointed with the statewide results, but pleased that Nantucket had come out so strongly for Obama.

“Especially for Nantucket, what was rewarding was that those numbers were a reflection of dozens of people making an effort and getting involved,” Loftin said. “I never had so many people call me out of the blue looking to volunteer.”

Obama supporters surrounded the polls at Nantucket High School with signs, and had previously lobbied for support at the Stop & Shop and the landfill in Madaket over the weekend.

“Nantucket has an independent, engaged voting group that looks at the issues and doesn’t just go along,” Loftin added. “We’re not hooked into the party establishment structure.”

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